In the Spring 2020 semester, I conducted a research study examining my own teaching including fun, play, and games in teaching. At the end of the semester, I had a graduate assistant run focus groups to understand my students’ learning experiences of this playful approach. As I am coding the data, one thing that is emerging is a wealth of advice from students for faculty as we design play and games for learning  – so I thought I’d share them here. 

Need Student Investment

As the students talked about games in learning, they described the importance for all students to be invested in the game for it to be meaningful. One student said, “I think for students who aren’t engaged in the play or who don’t want to play, it might be hard in that respect. But for people who are engaged and who are willing to do it, it’s really great.” Another student added, “when two students get together to do role-plays, you can only do as much as the other student gives you and so if they’re not really into it then it feels like you get stuck and more frustrated.” 

So, as faculty, we need to find ways to increase students’ engagement and buy-in with the games and play. We cannot expect students to automatically come into class in a positive mindset about play but we can do some things to foster it. One student said, “If it feels like it’s something I’m gonna do at a leadership team-building trust-fall conference, I don’t have any buy-in. But something that is going to allow me to connect to people or think creatively, that’s instant easy buy-in to me. And if I buy-in from the beginning, I’m more likely to stay bought-in for the whole course.” Personally, I think there are two key elements to earning student investment: (a) explicitly describing the purpose of play and (b) creating a strong sense of community and connection. In future posts, I will describe each of these tools for increasing student investment in greater depth but for now I will share that one the very first day of my class, I explicitly describe why I will be using play and games in my classes so they understand it all has a purpose.

Need Clear Directions

One thing that’s sure to get students confused and frustrated is not having clear directions or expectations. My students were not shy in sharing their frustrations about this. One student said, “For one activity, the instructions were a little vague and I felt like I didn’t really understand what we were doing.” Another said, “One thing that will get me annoyed is when there’s not clear directions for what we’re doing.” So, when you are designing play and games (or anything in learning for that matter), be sure you provide crystal clear instructions. I even provide the directions in multiple formats because I know it’s likely that some students aren’t really listening the first time so I give them multiple opportunities to have clarity. I will usually describe the game or activity verbally to students then ask what questions they have and then when I send them to groups to engage in the game, I also provide the exact same directions in written format. Then I also visit each group as they are getting started so I can clarify the directions again, if need be. I’m always amazed that even with verbal and written directions – many times they still are confused. 

Need To Be Mindful of Time/Length

The students within my classes enjoyed that the play and games never felt too long and were seemingly the appropriate amount of time. One student said, “the play was short enough that I never felt like it got to the point where I was like ‘okay, let’s move on.’” Another student said, “I think Dr. Forbes did a pretty good job of gauging how long to engage us in the play. That is frequently my criticism with other professors, it’s like ‘oh no, are we going to do one of these activities that happens.’ I’m sure we’ve all engaged in that kind of situation.” I think the difficult part about this type of feedback is that it’s largely subjective and probably varies based on the type of game/play and probably even varies between different groups of students. 

So, for me, ensuring that play and games doesn’t start to feel obligatory or “played out” I really pay attention to the students’ reactions and engagement in the game. If the students are active, excited, engaged, laughing, etc. then I know they are still enjoying it. If they look bored or the conversation starts to slow down, I know it’s time to move on. Sometimes I even set a ridiculously short amount of time that is nowhere near enough time for the game but the fact that it is timed adds some fun to it. Another note about this is, even if students are having a great time and laughing and completely engaged, if the game is only about fun and connection with no educational value, at some point you need to end the game so there’s enough time for the actual content. I am sure my students would love to just keep playing some of my icebreaker games for the entire three hours of class but that’s a part of being mindful with the length of play. End the play when it’s played out and dulled AND be reasonable with how much time you devote to merely “fun” play. Usually I keep the silly and goofy games between 2-10 minutes and the games and play that is more meaningful and tied to content, I allow it to go as long as it is meaningful. 

Needs To Be Purposeful

The students believe that games and play need to be purposeful or thoughtful. One said, “it would be easy to make it silly and irrelevant but even when we did stuff in this class that was silly, it didn’t feel irrelevant. If felt sometimes grounding, sometimes it felt light-hearted, sometimes it felt connecting, but it never felt like ‘oh my god, can we just get to the content please?’” Another talked about the games and play in my class and said the games and play felt like they all had a purpose even if it was just for fun and then said, “some professors just throw something in and you’re like, ‘what, why are we even doing this?” Another shared a similar irritation and said, “The thing that bothers me most about when other professors try to bring in fun or play is that it needs to have a purpose and if I can’t see it clearly and why we are doing this then we are just wasting time and I am paying a lot for this so I need to be learning something.” 

This section was interesting because I kept hearing inconsistencies in the student’s words. They were saying it has to be purposeful but sometimes they referred to my games and play as silly and not relating to the content all the time but that it still felt purposeful to them. I am wondering if what brings the purpose into play even when it’s silly is just explicit communication from the professor about how it is purposeful. I mentioned above that on the very first day of my classes, I describe the purpose of play and games and why I am specifically incorporating it. So, maybe explicit communication is all it takes because sometimes the purpose of my play and games is educational and directly related to the content but a lot of it isn’t and students still found the silly and the absurd, purposeful. 

Need to be Sensitive to Vulnerability in Play

The students indicated that play in the classroom can be a vulnerable experience because it opens them up and can, at times, put them on the spot. One student told a story of making a mistake in a role-play in front of the entire class and said, “it kinda clamps you up before the next class.” Another student had a similar experience where they thought they said the wrong thing in a role-play and they ended up shutting down and getting in their head. While these experiences of shutting down were rare and students also described these experiences as great learning opportunities, it is a good reminder to faculty that play can be vulnerable and so it’s important to build in protections for these experiences. I don’t think this feedback should deter play in learning, but I think the vulnerability that comes with play is something to be mindful of. I am now considering how to do a better job of noticing if a student is shutting down after a “mistake.” I am also going to be more explicit that shutting down can happen and invite them to process that experience aloud instead of having to handle it all internally and in isolation. 

Needs to be Unpredictable

The students talked favorably about the games in my classes being unpredictable, having an element of surprise, and never feeling tired or played out. One student said, “there was always this element of surprise that you were kind of waiting to see how it would go or how someone would answer a question, like ‘what question will I get and what question will that person get, and how will they answer that crazy question or who-oooh, I hadn’t thought of that word on the feelings wheel. So there was always this element of surprise.” One student described their belief that the amount and use of games should vary. Another student shared a story (describing a similar preference) that one of their other classes constantly used Kahoot and the student said, “we just did a bunch of Kahoots and it got to the point where I was getting tired of Kahoot.” I think the element of surprise and unpredictability keeps people on their toes and more likely to stay engaged. 

Every student group is different and the voices within this post are only a small group of students across three of my classes so take the advice how you’d like, but hopefully it helps you approach the designing of play from a different or more informed perspective.